ABSTRACT
Ofsted’s own evidence (Ofsted, 1998a) suggests that the accommodation in 23 per cent of secondary schools and in 13 per cent of primary schools is inadequate for the delivery of the curriculum. School governors and headteachers will suspect that the true number is far greater. Ofsted (1998c) identifies particular problems in meeting the teaching needs of science, design and technology, art, music and PE. ‘Some schools have poor or inaccessible study facilities, including libraries and computer rooms. Some schools are poorly decorated. Some are heavily dependent on temporary accommodation, which can be of poor quality’ (ibid, p. 14). While it is difficult to compare schools using different budget heads, it would seem that the average cost of maintenance in locally managed primary and secondary schools is about 1 per cent of the total budget, with expenditure on premises staff taking up a further 1 per cent. This has given governing bodies very little leeway, while most capital funds have been retained by LEAs or handed down for specific approved schemes by other funders.
